Children's Games
by Imoen Leslati
Summary: Five years after Spike’s death, Faye and Jet find an old friend and new trouble, and the beginning of a new adventure.
1. Part 1

Children's Games: Part 1

Rated PG for rampant bad language and some rather explicit violence.

Summary: Five years after Spike's death, Faye and Jet find an old friend and new trouble, and the beginning of a new adventure.

The weeks after Spike's death had been hard on both Jet and Faye, but somehow, they had stayed together. Actually, it had taken a lot of work on Jet's part to keep Faye from running off and jumping off a bridge...or worse. He knew it was possible for Faye to take herself out in a blaze of death even more impressive than the one Spike had caused.

Jet's grief had passed quickly. He had known, as soon as Spike poked his head in looking for some grub, that he would never see Spike again. He had tried to talk Spike out of it, but it was too late. Spike had already died once, then again when Julia died. It was all a matter of time until his body joined him. Jet's loss had ended with a toast to Spike's skill and his style. Spike would have wanted to take as many people with him when he went, especially this Vicious guy. And, well, Spike got his wish.

Amazingly, Faye's grief hadn't lasted as long as Jet had imagined it would. After a three-day bender, Faye somehow found her way back to the crashed Bebop, slept for 48 hours straight, cried for 24 more, taken a long shower, and re-emerged. She was hardly back to normal. She had just found out that she had almost died herself. But now, she was going to re-make herself, not live in the past. In her mind, Spike was all but forgotten. Whether this was a testament to her strength, a showing of how messed up her revelation had made her, or a confirmation that Faye really was a selfish bitch at heart was hard to tell. One way or another, Faye was going to move on. After all, Spike was just a partner.

Jet would never forget that stubborn jerk, the one that held their little 'family' all together, and had always had the main drive and ambition. Not that Faye wasn't just as ambitious, but Spike's ambition was more goal-oriented.

In short, Faye and Jet had remained on the Bebop for the simple reason that they needed each other. Jet was still healing from his bullet wound, and the ship was grounded, so he needed Faye to go out and get just one bounty that would get them off this rock. Faye needed a place to stay, and something to do, so she didn't do something destructive.

The period of mourning was over, and it was time for the crew to get back in the sky.

Five years passed...

Jet and Faye never left each other. The pair had become incredibly efficient, even without their hacker and their crack fighter. Now, Faye had to fill in for Spike, and Jet had to take over Ed's job. Still, once they got into the flow of their jobs, the legendary success rate of the Bebop continued.

Now, they were back on Earth. While, normally, the planet didn't hold much in the way of activity, Jet had stumbled upon what he called a "gold mine."

"So what are we after, Jet?" Faye lounged on the couch behind Jet.

"A terrorist group called The Children."

Faye perked an eyebrow.

"Not like that. The youngest known members are about 16. They don't seem to have any actual children with them." Jet shrugged. "You know these crazy groups. Undoubtedly, it must have something to do with their ideas. Something about them being the children that are supposed to inherit the planet from our generation, and they're claiming we're messing up their precious home."

Faye chuckled. "Not our fault. It's the meteors that are messing up their precious home. Oh, well. How am I supposed to understand how they work? What's the bounty?"

Jet's eyes bugged out of his head. "A million...apiece." He turned around and grinned at Faye. "And they work in numbers. They've appeared in groups of about two dozen at times..."

So, that had decided it. The pair were off to Earth

Jet was pondering over the computer as they traveled. "Their mode of operations is interesting. They hit any major building they can; hotels, government offices, important stuff. But before they strike, they hack into the building's systems and effectively lock it down. No power or communications, and by the time anyone outside the building's figured out its getting hit, the 'Children' are long gone."

Faye nodded. "So they're not just thugs, they're computer nerds."

"Try computer geniuses. Says here no matter how well-prepared the buildings are, no one can ever trace the hacks. Just like the physical terrorists, the net terrorists are in and out quickly, without a trace."

"So the plot thickens."

After a long moment of silence, Jet froze. He rushed to the controls of the ship, with a sinking feeling. The controls were set to land at the Earth Central Spaceport. Jet swore as he looked out the front window. "We're out of hyperspace. But the Spaceport hasn't asked for our codes."

Faye snatched up her pistol belt, and paused at the weapons locker for a rifle. "I'm going down."

"Be careful, Faye! You're probably going to be outnumbered!"

Faye sent him a smirk. "I'm not stupid. We can get them one at a time, remember. Million woolongs, come to Mama!"

"You mean five hundred thousand! Don't forget my cut!" Jet shouted back.

"Killjoy!" Faye retorted.

With that, Faye sped down to Earth's surface in her ship.

As Jet had feared, all the power was out of the Earth Spaceport. The inside was so completely chaotic that no one noticed Faye enter. She at least had the discretion to hide her weapons under a long coat. Although, as she cautiously entered through one of the broken automatic doors, luckily paused while it was open, to get inside, she figured no one would have noticed another two guns anyway.

Almost right as she walked inside, the gunshots started.

A demanding voice rang out. "Everybody down!" The scared sheep of the crowd all screamed, a rather unnecessary anticlimactic response to the gunfire, and obeyed in fear. Faye dropped a little more slowly, to keep from playing her hand too early. She at least wanted to locate all of the thugs before taking them out.

She could see the loud one standing on a counter, brandishing an automatic rifle. Others were moving through the crowd, showing various weapons. Faye locked eyes with the one standing tall. Faye wanted to bring that one home as her first prize.

The loudmouth gestured, and one of the men moved to Faye, pulling her to her feet. The farce was gone; she looked insolently up at the guy that seemed to be running the show. His eyes scanned her up and down, taking in her leather-clad breasts and long slim legs.

"Bring her here," he ordered.

Faye shrugged off the pulling arm of Loudmouth's lackey, instead strutting over to the counter. "Can I help you?" she asked in her sultriest voice.

He nodded. "Yeah. We need to start taking hostages to prove to the government how serious we are. And I think we're going to start with you."

His leering face couldn't move fast enough to avoid Faye's fist. Before any of the other thugs could move, Faye had whipped out her pistol and put it against Loudmouth's temple.

"Wrong answer," she whispered, suddenly all business.

"If I die for the cause, it doesn't matter! Kill her, my brothers! It is all for the good of the cause!"

Faye cursed herself. Fanatic terrorists don't make good hostages or shields. They have no will to survive or fear of death. Still, she kept up her tough exterior, making sure that she had the situation under control. "That's fine. Any one of you is worth one million big ones. I don't need you."

His face paled. Faye smirked. So he was afraid of death. Unfortunately, the thugs were closing in on her. The rest of the people were still so afraid of the presence of a firearm that they were still on the ground. And now, Faye was seriously out-numbered. She paused for but a moment, before she was going to shoot the one nearest to her.

At that instant, Faye's world exploded.

Reflexively, as she fell off the counter, Faye's finger pulled the trigger. In yet another stroke of luck, Loudmouth fell with her and took the bullet in the shoulder. Her bounty was still alive. Faye stayed down until the loud crashes finally silenced themselves.

When she peered over the edge of the counter, the room was filled with smoke. It took Faye a long moment to realize what had just happened, though. Every video monitor and piece of electronic equipment on the walls had suddenly shorted out, sending sparks flying. The simultaneous sound was enough to startle the on-edge people into believing the room had exploded.

But, still, Faye had her prisoner. In the continued chaos, Faye grabbed Loudmouth by his good shoulder and started dragging him. All he could do was whimper and grab at his wound as Faye left through the door she had entered by.

That was some stroke of luck on her part. In fact, the entire job had been rather in her favor. Which meant, in Faye's mind, that it had been a set-up. Someone was looking out for her.

"Oh Je-et! Look what I found!"

Faye tossed the restrained Loudmouth into the ship before her. He screamed in pain as his poorly bandaged shoulder banged against the deck.

Jet hissed. "Not there! I don't want him bleeding all over the deck plates!" He dragged the bounty to his feet. "Not bad. One down, lord only knows how many to go."

"My friends will come for me," Loudmouth retorted. "We'll do to you exactly what we've done to all of Ea..."

His speech was cut off as Faye slapped the duct tape over his mouth. "I wanted to do that the instant I saw him," she explained.

Jet slid Loudmouth's wallet out of his pocket. "David Harrison..." He moved to the computer and re-opened the files he had found on The Children. "Hey, good work, Faye! This guy's one of their heads."

Faye smiled. "Excellent. Maybe we can squeeze 1.5 out of them for him."

Jet patted David on the head. "Let's keep him around for a while. He seems to like you, Faye."

David's muffled hissing through the duct tape suggested anything but.

Faye agreed, though. "If he's right, and the others do come for him, it'll make this job a lot easier."

After Faye had disappeared with David, the Children had made a hasty retreat. Luckily, they had been able to get out in the confusion, as well. They were swearing to each other as they ran.

"That fucking bitch grabbed David! Now what?" Brian complained loudly once they made it back to their hideout.

Charles shook his head. "I knew she was feisty when I grabbed her, but no, David had to go and piss her off."

Brian threw up his hands. "Why did she take him in the first place?"

Harold rolled his eyes at his partner's naiveté. "She's a bounty hunter, Brian," he explained slowly. "Either that or a counter-terrorist."

Alex raised his hand. "One question. That explosion wasn't in the plan. What happened there?"

Harold's brow furrowed. "Good question. Someone must have suddenly restored power and overloaded the entire system."

Alex bit his lip to stifle the sudden, scaring thought that just entered his mind. "They would have had to already been in the system to do that, wouldn't they?"

Harold nodded, slowly, not understanding where Alex was going with his line of thinking.

"I have to go talk to someone." Alex walked out of the main room, where the group was still whining about the plan gone bad, into the back room. The Children's hackers were cooped up in there, in the safest place they could be. These Children were invaluable to the cause. The grunt work could be replaced at any time, but the genius contained in these minds was irreplaceable.

Alex was looking for one hacker in particular; the one that had been in the system at the time, and the only one who had the skill to take on the entire Spaceport computer network.

"Ed? Are you in here?"


	2. Part 2

Children's Games: Part 2

Rated PG for rampant bad language and some rather explicit violence.

Summary: Five years after Spike's death, Faye and Jet find an old friend and new trouble, and the beginning of a new adventure.

"Ed? Are you in here?"

Alex found the enigmatic red-haired hacker still hunched in front of her computer. The goggles hiding her dark brown eyes were her interface with the computer, and the way she seemed to interact with the world now. The only person she really had anything to do with was Alex, or, at times, David or Harold when they explained what she had to do for their upcoming missions. She avoided just about everyone else, preferring the company of her computer and her dog, Ein. She was strange, but she was quite clearly the most intelligent person Alex had ever met, and he was intent on breaking into her shell.

Alex sat down next to the girl, avoiding the sleeping Welsh Corgi behind her. "Ed. What happened during the bust?"

As usual, the girl was silent. She could understand her companions, but in the three years they had known Ed, she had not spoken a single word. Instead, she seemed to communicate through these odd faces that appeared on her computer screen, to show her emotions. The one on the screen now was a deep frown.

"Ed, are you all right?" Alex sat down next to Ed, concerned now.

The goggles slid off her face and she turned to Alex. She sent him a reassuring smile, but Alex could see right through it.

"Ed, what happened in the airport system? Everything shorted out."

At this, Ed's eyes lit up. She smiled slyly, and gestured for him to continue.

"Well, some girl grabbed David, and we were going to stop her, when everything blew up. We got out safe, but she had David."

Ed's face turned thoughtful, and she looked back at her computer.

Alex looked hard at Ed. "Ed, did you do it?" She looked startled, staring at him in fear. "I won't tell anyone," he quickly reassured the girl. "It was very good, since it got us all out of there without that woman shooting us, but, still...did you do it?"

Ed nodded once, sharply.

Alex frowned. He didn't understand Ed's motives, but, then again, no one did. He put his hand on the teen's head. "It was good work." She blinked at the praise. "It worked, whatever you were trying to do. You saved everybody's lives. And, for that, I thank you. But I won't go spreading this around, okay? Our little secret."

Ed smiled at that part. She put a finger up to her lips, then to Alex's. He winked at her as he walked back out. "I'll see you around, kiddo."

As Alex left, Ed let out a sigh of relief. Whenever she did anything, Ed would leave just one security camera on, so she could watch what was going on, then corrupted the file of the tape when she left, so no one could tell what had happened.

She had known about the bounty on their heads, but she hadn't heard anything from Faye or Jet in years. She hadn't even known they were still working. It was a shock the moment she saw Faye on the security camera. She had acted quickly to save her friend's life. She couldn't let Faye die.

She couldn't let someone else die…

…like she had let Spike die.

Ed had to leave the Bebop. Spike, Faye-Faye, and Jet-person were all right, but now Ed finally had a clue to who she was. Ein had insisted on coming along, and that was okay. Maybe Ein had to find out who he was, too. They would be all right without her.

Unfortunately, Father-person moved around so much that it was hard for Ed to track him. She finally had an idea, to track out the meteors, like he did, and try to beat him to the spots. Unfortunately, she either always guessed wrong, or was too late. Still, Edward wasn't about to give up. After all, the Bebop had left Earth. This chase was all she had left.

For right now, Ed was seated on a rock, outside of any Earth city. She and Ein were splitting a can of corned beef while Ed was surfing the internet. It was the only thing left to cure the boredom of her search.

A news story caught her attention. Something about the Syndicate building on Mars getting blown up by one man...but there was nothing about the man himself. Ed cracked her knuckles. She needed a challenge like this to distract from the futility of finding her father. For someone like Radical Edward, finding out a simple name would be easy.

She snatched up the can of beef from Ein, typing one-handed, as she found the hospital records for that day. A lot of people from the building dead. This wasn't good.

Ed froze completely still as her eyes caught a single name. The can of food slipped from her hand and clattered on the ground. Ein barked sharply and put his paw on Ed's leg, whining piteously. Edward ripped off her goggles and looked up at the sky.

With a trembling voice, Edward spoke, confirming the facts both to herself and to Ein. "Spike-person...is dead."

She had left Spike, and now he was dead. The irrational guilt that welled up inside the girl caused her to shut out the rest of the world, except for her computer and Ein. Her affirmation of Spike's death were the last words she spoke for five years.

Two years passed...

Edward had never been able to find her father. The only things she had left in this world were Ein and her precious computer. She became a wanderer on Earth, living off of fake created money from fake identities. In what started out as a search for herself, she was soon lost in the false world she had created for herself just to survive.

As her net skills were honed, so were her physical skills. In the few times that Edward slipped up or was found out, she learned how to protect herself physically. As she became a hardened teenager, Edward became a survivor.

Then, by a stroke of luck, Edward found The Children. She was looking into the Earth Hilton, considering falsifying reservations and payments so she could stay there for a while, when she encountered someone else trying to hack into the system.

As a bit of a joke, she sent out her trademark smiley-face to block their entry. In curiosity, she allowed them to trace her, because she wanted to know about them as much as they wanted to know about her.

One thing led to another, and a man named Alex was sent out after her. Instead of the threatening hacker he expected, he found a silent little girl and her dog without a place to call home.

Instead of hurting her, Alex took her back to the Children, and explained her abilities. She needed a home; they needed her skills. Ed and Ein became members of the Children.

When she had seen Faye there, Ed had just paused for a long time. The painful memories had come flooding back to her, but so had the good ones. The Bebop had been her family. So, she wasn't about to sit idly by as the Children killed Faye. Yes, she had saved the Children's lives, but she had also saved Faye's.

Ed pulled her goggles back on and started typing swiftly. This couldn't be a coincidence. If Faye was here, Ed had to find her. She had to talk to her old friend just one more time.

She left Ein asleep in the basement as she hopped onto her scooter and sped off towards the coordinates of the Bebop's landing.


	3. Part 3

Children's Games: Part 3

Rated PG for rampant bad language and some rather explicit violence.

Summary: Five years after Spike's death, Faye and Jet find an old friend and new trouble, and the beginning of a new adventure.

The instant the door creaked open on the ship, Jet was awake. He had slept out on the couch to keep a closer eye on David, and just as they expected, someone was coming for him.

Jet appeared completely asleep on the couch as the intruder slipped inside. He could hear the light footsteps, ever so cautious, as they approached him. Jet waited for just a moment, until he was absolutely certain that David's rescuer was standing right over him, before he struck.

He lashed out with his metal arm, connecting with nothingness. He rolled to his feet to see a rather frail person landing a back flip. The face was shrouded in the darkness, but a pair of brown eyes looked up at him. As Jet reached out to grab the intruder, the form dropped into a crouch, as a thin leg snaked out, tripping up the much larger Jet and sending him to the deck plates with a crash.

David awoke with the sound of Jet's landing. He smiled at the intruder, and laughed out loud at Jet's predicament. "Good girl! Get me out of here, and I'll give you something really good back at the hideaway!"

Jet reached for his gun, trying to get his feet under him. When he spun to face the intruder, the brown eyes were an inch away from his face. He blinked a few times as David's words made their impact, and Jet paused.

The intruder's mouth moved cautiously, slowly, as if trying to force out the words. "W-wait, Jet p-per-son." The words sounded strange, almost in a foreign tongue, and it took Jet a long moment to recognize that the intruder had spoken his name. The gentle, high-pitched voice tugged at his memory. Jet's brow wrinkled as he put a face to the name; an idealistic young girl from many years ago.

Jet reached out a hand to touch the girl's cheek. "Ed? Are you Edward?"

The intruder's hood was brushed back, and the familiar red hair, slightly tanned skin and brown eyes greeted Jet, in a friendly manner.

"Ed is Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky...the fourth," she said, confirming her identity.

"Ed...How did you get here?" Jet asked the girl curiously.

Ed's eyes shone brightly. "Jet-person have food? Ed-ward is hungry."

Jet laughed out loud. "Of course, Ed. Lemme get some lights in here and wake up Faye. She's not gonna believe this…"

It was a happy reunion on the Bebop as Jet, Faye, and Ed sat down to a very late dinner. David got re-gagged in the corner so he wouldn't interrupt, as Edward slowly told her story. Jet and Faye listened patiently as the girl got used to speaking again.

"The Children take good care of me," Ed finished. "And I don't get shot at as much there as I did here!"

Jet had to laugh at her comment. "Well, that's the truth. But, do you like it?"

Edward frowned. "Not really. It feels good to do some-thing, but I'm still stuck on Earth. It's not home any more."

Faye smiled. "You wanna come back and work with us? We've left your room open…"

Ed's eyes dropped to her lap. "I can't come back here…" She looked up and saw where Spike would normally be sitting. She couldn't deal with this.

Ed hastily stood up and headed towards the door. "I…I have to go."

Faye ran after her. "Wait, Ed! Please don't go!" She snagged Edward's arm. "You're one of the Children, right? We don't want you to get hurt while we're taking them in."

Ed looked at Faye angrily. "If you take them all in, what am I sup-posed to do then? Just join back with you and try to forget how I let Spike die?"

Jet and Faye looked at each other. This threw them completely off guard. "Ed, it wasn't your fault," Jet explained. "You were too young to understand what was going on then, but I think you should know now. Spike was in love. It killed him. His obsession with Juila and Vicious, and his inability to let go of his past consumed him. Even if you had been here, he still would have gone off alone after the Syndicate. It's not your fault."

Ed sat back down. "Spike…"

Faye put her hand on Ed's shoulder. "Maybe you should sleep here for the night. Get some rest, this has been rough on all of us."

Ed shook her head. "Ein is back at the hide out. So is Alex. They would be worried."

Jet nodded. "Get some rest, but please, come back and see us. We've missed you, Ed. Do…" Jet sighed deeply, thinking of all the money going down the drain, but he asked the question anyway. "Do you want us to leave The Children alone?"

Ed's brow furrowed in conflict. "I…I don't know. I'll be back. Can I answer that later? I promise I'll come back."

Jet nodded. "You want us to send David with you?"

Ed instantly shook her head, to David's muffled protests. "Keep him. In case I change my mind."

With that, Ed slipped out into the darkness.

Faye watched Ed leave, while standing very still, mouthing something to herself.

Jet looked at his partner curiously. "Faye?"

"…twenty-nine…thirty!" Faye dashed over to the computer screen. "All right, let's see if it worked!"

Jet looked confused. "Faye, what did you do?"

"Put at transponder on her scooter, duh." Faye lit up a cigarette. "I'm not losing Ed again, and I'm not losing this opportunity to pull in a huge bounty."

Jet growled. "I cannot believe you! Using Ed to get money? Is there nothing you won't do?"

"The beacon's activated. We should be able to follow it right to our prize in just a few hours," Faye was completely ignoring Jet's tirade.

Jet stormed out of the room in frustration. "Unbelievable!"

At the break of dawn, Faye set out in her ship to follow the beacon signal. It actually went farther out into the wilderness, not too far from their landing site. The Children had been practically under their noses the entire time.

Faye touched down over a ridge from where the signal was coming from. She approached on foot, cradling her rifle in her hands. If there were any external guards, she would take them out from afar before anyone knew what was happening. She carefully peered over the ridge.

A single coyote scavenged for scraps in the middle of a blank valley.

"What the hell?" Faye voiced her confusion aloud.

She stood up and walked down into the valley to investigate. As she approached, the startled coyote dropped what was in its mouth. Faye's eyebrow twitched as she spotted a familiar-looking transponder.

"Jet," she spoke into her comm unit.

"Found the place?"

"I think that girl paid a little too close attention to Spike."


	4. Part 4

Children's Games: Part 4

Rated PG for rampant bad language and some rather explicit violence.

Summary: Five years after Spike's death, Faye and Jet find an old friend and new trouble, and the beginning of a new adventure.

Ed snuck back into the hideout that morning. Ein trotted over and gave a questioning look to the big smile on her face. Ed answered with a simple grin of her own. Ein sniffed Ed's legs carefully, until he hit that familiar scent. He started barking excitedly, with a hopeful look on his face.

Ed grinned back at the puppy. She slipped over to the computer and called up a picture of the Bebop, then one of Faye and one of Jet. Ein responded by leaping up into Ed's arms and slurping her face. She laughed out loud in joy with her friend.

The other hackers were giving Ed strange looks as they awoke. They had never heard her be this happy about anything. What in the world was going on?

One of them slipped out of the room to find Alex. "Could you at least get the dog to shut up?"

Alex curiously poked his head into the room. "Ed? What's going on?"

Ed quieted very suddenly as she saw Alex. Ein drooped his ears and jumped out of Ed's arms. The sudden cease of joy made Alex even more suspicious. He glanced onto Ed's computer screen. "What's that?"

Ed tried, unsuccessfully, to block the images of Faye, Jet, and the Bebop. "That's the woman from yesterday," Alex recognized Faye. "You found the guys who are after us?"

Ed killed the power on her computer and stood up. In a flash, she ran past Alex and out of the room, away from the growing stares from the other hackers.

"Ed!" Alex sped after the girl. She was faster than Alex had realized, as he struggled to keep up. "Ed, wait!"

Ed made for the stairs and bolted up onto the roof. Alex had to pause to catch his breath as they went outside. "Ed, stop," Alex asked, "please?"

Ed stopped and turned back to Alex. "Alex?"

In his weakened condition, the sudden shock that came with the simple utterance of his name made Alex fall over. He looked up at Edward in amazement. "You…You talked?"

Ed nodded. "That's why we had to be alone."

Ed sat down, and Alex crawled over next to her. "Why have you been silent all this time?"

Ed looked out into the distance. "I was sad. A friend of mine died. I thought it was my fault. Maybe it wasn't."

Alex put his arm on Ed's shoulder, comfortingly. "Who was he?"

Ed blew out a big sigh. "His name was Spike. He was a bounty hunter. I lived on his ship, the Bebop, with him, Ein, Faye, and Jet for a while."

Alex's eyes widened. "The Bebop? I forgot they'd been around so long."

"They were my family," Ed continued. "But I thought I found my real family, so I left. And then Spike died."

"And those other two," Alex gestured back downstairs. "Those are Faye and Jet?"

Ed nodded. "They told me it wasn't my fault. I guess they're right." She looked up at Alex, her brown eyes piercing into his. "Do you like it here?"

Alex sighed. "I don't really believe in the cause, and I guess that's why nobody really likes me. I just have nowhere else to go. I've also got you." He patted Ed on the head. "I couldn't leave you alone here."

"Then why don't we leave?" Ed asked.

Alex snorted. "It would have been hard enough to leave with David in charge. Tell this to Harold? He's even more of a nut job. They'd kill us."

Ed gave a sly smile. "Then how about we make sure they leave us?"

Alex laughed as he stood up. "Make sure the Bebop takes them in? Ed, if you can do it, I will bow to you."

Alex opened the door, and was immediately greeted by a pistol being held in his face. Harold grinned at him from behind it. "Alex. Couldn't help but overhear…You're selling out?"

Brian and Charles stood behind Harold with two more guns, and peeking his head out from behind the three strong men, one of the hackers could be seen. He grinned evilly at Edward.

Alex held up his hands. "Harold, this is stupid. You don't want to do this."

Harold laughed. "Oh, so I'm supposed to sit back and let you run to your bounty hunter friends and tell them where to find us? I think not. David felt sorry for you two, but I don't. You don't belong here."

"You're right," Ed's words cut the tension of the moment. "We don't."

In a flash, Ed had knocked the gun upwards, taking it off its aim and causing it to go off. The bullet went harmlessly into the sky. Ed's elbow went to Harold's stomach, then she torqued his arm, and spun him into a throw. As Harold landed, the gun went flying. Alex was quick on the ball to catch the gun. While Brian and Charles were still in the process of trying to decide whether or not to act, Alex shot both of them in the legs, disabling them.

The hacker boy dashed back into the building. "Help!"

Ed grabbed Alex by the arm and tugged him towards the edge of the roof. "Time to go!"

"Ed, are you crazy?"

Ed answered Alex's question by leaping off the side of the building. She landed in a roll, and kept right on running towards her scooter, without even looking back. Alex backed up a few steps, then tried to duplicate Ed's move. He landed hard on his shoulder, but got up mostly unscathed. He hopped onto the back of Ed's scooter.

"Are you sure this will take both of us?"

"Only one way to find out." Ed revved the engine and took off into the desert.

Alex looked back at the complex. "They're already getting mobilized. Do we have a chance at losing them?"

Ed shrugged. "Maybe, but I don't want to. We're gonna lead them to the Bebop."


	5. Part 5

Children's Games: Part 5

Rated PG for rampant bad language and some rather explicit violence.

Summary: Five years after Spike's death, Faye and Jet find an old friend and new trouble, and the beginning of a new adventure.

Jet answered the call on the comm unit. He grinned as Ed's face came on the screen. "Hey, Ed! Nice move with the transponder. I've been teasing Faye about it all morning."

"Jet! No time to talk! Coming there with Alex. The Children are after us. If you want your bounty, I suggest you guys get your butts in gear!"

Jet jumped to his feet. "Gotcha. How many?"

"They're probably mobilizing the full fleet," a male blonde head poked into the screen. "Expect at least two dozen headed your way."

"We're about 5 minutes out," Ed added. "Hurry."

"We'll be ready." Jet killed the link. "Faye! They're coming!"

Faye shouldered her rifle. "I heard! Let's rock and roll!"

Faye spotted the scooter in the distance, followed closely by a bunch of other light mini-transports. They were already within shooting distance, so Alex was firing shots back to fend them off. Faye counted 11 mini-transports, with a pilot and shooter in each. A larger one was hanging back a bit, and Faye could only assume someone more important was hiding back there.

Faye started taking pot shots at the transports, shooting to disable the vehicles and protect her bounty. She disabled two quickly, and watched as their riders hit the sand. Four down already.

Faye nailed two more, before one of the enemy shots hit the scooter, and Ed and Alex took a dive. Faye swore and changed her aim. "Forget the bounty. Ed! Watch out!"

The guns on the ship suddenly roared to life and started firing. Faye dove to the deck at the tremendous noise coming from beneath her. "Isn't that a little overkill, Jet?" she screamed out.

"Ed is in trouble!" was Jet's only reply.

When the smoke cleared, there was little movement. Faye could see people moving around, but nothing was charging at them. She slung her rifle, and climbed down the side of the ship. Time to see how many millions they had lost in that exchange.

Ed and Alex shot through the plain as they saw the Bebop growing closer. "They're right up ahead!" Ed shouted. "We're going to be fine."

"I'll hold them off!" Alex started firing shots back at the transports, to try to disable something until the cavalry arrived.

He saw two cycle crash without his firing, and he gave a sigh of relief. They were going to make it. He raised his gun for another shot.

One bullet sound seemed to stand out from the rest, and Alex was pitched from the scooter as it swerved. He turned just in time to see Ed fall forward, blood pumping from her side.

"Ed!" He crawled towards the wreckage of the scooter. "Ed! Can you hear me?"

If Ed replied, Alex couldn't hear it as the exchange suddenly got a lot louder. Someone activated the ship's main deck guns. Alex threw his body over Ed, then pulled the metal of the scooter over both of them, ducked his head, and started praying.

The silence seemed to echo louder than the gun fire. Alex threw the scooter off, and looked down at Ed. "Ed? Ed, tell me you're all right?"

The woman from the space port appeared at Alex's side. "Ed! Oh, crap." She knelt down beside the girl and gently placed her hands on her. "She's okay. The bullet got her in the side, and she got knocked out, but she's breathing. Take her inside, up that ladder there. Jet can take care of her. I'll cover you."

Alex nodded his thanks as he picked up the frail girl. Ed was skinnier than he thought, and so light! How had she been able to muster so much power against Harold, then?

"Don't die, Ed," he whispered. "If you don't want to let someone else die, that means you can't let yourself die, either."

Jet rushed down to the main room just in time to meet Alex. He gestured to the couch. "Lay her there." Jet snatched the emergency first aid kit from the wall.

Alex gently put Ed down on the couch, then stepped back. He knew if he offered to help, he would just get in the way.

Jet neatly worked with a pair of scissors to cut away Ed's overflowing hoodie, already drenched in blood. Ed's frail figure was highlighted by her undershirt clinging tightly to her form with sweat and blood.

This enigmatic girl, this great mystery, just seemed so weak and vulnerable, lying on the couch, breathing heavily. She was a child, just barely a woman, sucked into this dangerous world. Alex clenched and unclenched his fists in helplessness. He wanted to protect her, but it was all up to Jet now.

Jet gently wiped all the blood away from her side, and breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the wound. "Winged her," he called out so Alex could relax, too. "I'll tape it up, and she'll be fine."

Alex let out the breath that he had been holding. "Thank you."

Jet held a pad against Ed's side. "Come here. Sit her up and hold her while I tape this around her ribs. This'll help, just in case the bullet grazed the bone."

Alex took Ed's shoulders ever so gently, and forced Ed's body to sit up. She groaned lightly as she was moved, and Alex cringed, but held her in place as Jet worked.

Jet chuckled. "She's not made of glass, you know."

Alex sighed. "She sure showed me that earlier. I wouldn't have made it out of there alive if it weren't for her."

Jet perked an eyebrow. "Really now? Maybe she really was watching Spike a lot."

Faye walked into the room with a big smile. "Good news, Jet! Your little tirade only took out three of them! The others are still alive, kicking, and rounded up in the hold! Add in David, and that makes a big 20 million woolongs for the lot of them! How's Ed?"

Jet motioned for Alex to lay her back down. "She's all right. We should let her sleep."

Almost on cue, Ed jolted awake and sat up. "Ein!"

All three other people in the room looked at her strangely. "Ein?" Jet asked.

Alex's eyes widened. "The hideout! The hackers are still there! And they have Ein!"

Faye's eyebrows raised. "Hackers? There are more?" Jet could almost see the money signs in her eyes.

Ed tried to stand up. "Ein! I'm comin…" Ed fell back down. "Dizzy."

"You probably bumped your head in that crash," Alex told her. "Take it easy. We'll go."

Ed shook her head. "Ed must go and get Ein."

"Fine, then I'm going with you," Alex affirmed.

Jet moved to the controls. "Hey, don't worry about it. Let's pick up your scooter, and we'll take the ship over. We'll all go. Wouldn't want you guys to steal all the bounty yourselves."

Ed smiled. "Thank you. We should hurry, before they realize that no one is coming back."


	6. Part 6

Children's Games: Part 6

Rated PG for rampant bad language and some rather explicit violence.

Summary: Five years after Spike's death, Faye and Jet find an old friend and new trouble, and the beginning of a new adventure.

Faye took the lead as they snuck into The Children's hideout. Ed was close behind her, with Alex right at her side. They hadn't been able to convince her to stay on the ship, but she had promised to stay out of the way.

Faye kicked in the door to the back room. Their arrival had clearly been noticed, as all the computer screens were lit up with a countdown. Ein was letting out a pitiful whine, trapped in a makeshift cage in the middle of the room. The hacker who had ratted out Alex and Ed was sitting on top of the cage to keep Ein trapped with a keyboard on his lap. He grinned at Faye, Alex, and Ed's entry.

"So good to see you again, Ed. We've been busy without you. If you deigned to speak to us once in a while, you might have seen this coming." He gestured to the countdown. "We're launching a full shut down of Earth's remaining satellites. They'll be totally blind to the meteors, and it will wipe them all out."

Faye narrowed her eyes. "Not if I take you out." She emphasized her point with the gun.

"Kill me if you want," he mocked. "The countdown's already started."

"No thanks," Faye replied. "I'd rather get the one million on your head."

"Ah, but there has to be an Earth government left in order for you to collect," the boy smiled back.

"What the hell do you want?" Alex was getting impatient.

"Ed. You are such a stuck-up bitch, you know that? I bet you don't even know my name, do you?" The brat with his finger on the doomsday button was pausing to rant in his madness.

Ed stepped forward. "Let Ein go. He has nothing to do with this."

The boy laughed. "It's Jacob, by the way. But you don't care. You don't even care that I'm going to render the planet defenseless. All you care about is this mutt." Jacob kicked the cage to get Ein to whine again.

Edward stepped fully into the light, to give Jacob full view of her bloodied form. "I said, let Ein go." Ed's voice turned dark, something no one had heard before, which made it all the more scary. She stepped even closer, and put her face an inch away from Jacob's. "Now."

"Fucking bitch." Jacob's hand reached out to slap Ed. In the blink of an eye, that hand was twisted at an unnatural angle, and a loud snap punctuated the room, followed by Jacob's screaming.

"Won't be doing any hacking with that hand for a while," Ed commented as she shoved Jacob off the cage. She glared around at the rest of the hackers, who were now shrinking against the walls. "Anyone else want to piss me off?"

She was met with ten head shakes.

"Then you wanna go ahead and stop your little virus? Or are you gonna make me do it? You know I'm better than all of you put together."

There was a deep powering down sound as all the computers were deactivated.

"Good." Ed knocked over the crate and let Ein out.

Faye nodded her approval. "Looks like you've been taking some pages from my book, as well."

Ed picked up Ein and rubbed his head. "Frankly, I get things done with a lot less property damage than you three. Yeesh."

Faye laughed out loud. "True on that one. Come on. I count eleven here, which brings the total to…31 million woolongs! Woohoo!"

Alex's eyes bugged out. "I didn't know there was that kind of money in bounty hunting."

"It disappears pretty fast," Faye explained.

"So what are you going to do with all that money?" Alex asked.

Faye got a sly grin on her face. "We've got some ideas…"

Jet sat down with Ed the next day to figure out where they were going next.

"Do you want to come back with us? I know it's not much, but you've always got a home here. And you've certainly grown up well. We know you can handle yourself in bad situations, and your hacking skills haven't gotten rusty. What do you say?" Jet looked into Ed's eyes.

Ed smiled. "Thanks, Jet. I know I can get back into bounty hunting, but I'm not sure if I want to do it with the Bebop. You two are a good team now, and you've had plenty of practice. I don't wanna get in the way."

Jet winked. "Besides. It looks like you've got a partner of your own there, now."

Ed laughed out loud. "Hey. Not like that. But, still, I kind of want to go into business for myself."

Jet nodded. "Fair enough. Then this belongs to you."

Ed's eyes bugged out as she looked at the credit chip. "25 million? That's way more than half!"

Jet laughed. "We've found ourselves another bounty on this rock. The 6 million will hold us out until we bag them. We figured it would be better invested in you. It's enough to get you started, at least."

Ed flung her arms around Jet's neck. "Thank you, thank you! I promise I'll make you proud."

Jet laughed. "Hey, and if you ever need a hand, or some advice, we're always here for you."

Ed smiled. "I know the Bebop will always be home."

Don't worry, guys, it's not over. Yup, you guessed it! This is the pilot for a series of stories involving Ed, Ein, and Alex's adventures as bounty hunters. I should have the first one uploaded pretty soon, so you won't have too long to wait. I hope you enjoyed my work, and if you liked this, you should like the rest of the series.


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